Report 58

Sila Paramita (Ethical Conduct)

It struck me as odd to think of sila paramita as being 'a perfection', because I think of the paramitas as energetic expressions of Buddha Nature, and I think of ethical conduct as being behaviors one becomes aware of when they have birthed a desire/set an intention toward 'do no harm'. The latter may indeed bring one to cultivate allowing former, but I asked myself "Are they the same?"

In light of Dao's comment during last week's session though, of paramitas as path AND fruit, ethical conduct itself with all its various behaviors, makes much more sense as an energetic expression of Buddha nature.

So it seems useful to clarify: Precepts v. Paramitas.

I can't help but refer to The Noble Eightfold path  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path, and consider that each is the other. Going deeply into any one, as some of us first discovered in early WoK sessions, we run first of all into the limitations and shortcomings of even our best intended 'self' :), and second of all, we run into the rest of the precepts. 

By intending to 'do no harm' one begins to notice how utterly impossible that is to muster up by ordinary means/will... how utterly hopeless, and therefore begins to let go (of grasping) to do so... even if just a little bit. 

Letting go of grasping (aided by the intention along with the sense of futility of self) would then seem the beginning of 'enlightened expressions' coming into play.

It strikes me as a sort of dance between humility and grace. :) 

-Toward the end of the workshop a few weeks ago, some of us also noted the parallels to other religious frameworks here. In Proverbs, there is a section that really came alive to me when I began studying Buddhism: "Guard your heart with all dilligence for out of it flow the issues of life." 

That can be read as a kind of "Keep Out" sign, if one isn't careful... causing a person who desires to live a 'spiritual' life to close up and set themselves apart from the world... to see the world/'other people' as an enemy trying to steal what they are working so hard for, even so-called spiritual things. Ask me how I know. ;-) 

Within a context that does not have a sense of hope of attainment of something, however,  this sentence opens up beautifully. Some time ago I rewrote it for myself as: "Cultivate the heart with all attentiveness for out of it flow the virtues of life."   

This to me resonates with the focus on 'Aliveness' I so appreciate of Stim's... that we aren't trying to 'get' something from out there or 'become' some one else or get anyone's approval/permission, but rather allowing a natural process of dropping what we (think we) have to see (be?) what we are.   

Haha... And sorry but I have to do it. I won't be here so you can throw tomatoes at me later (giggle):

"You can't do it, but what you are in a larger sense can." S.T.